Drew Allar may be Mike McCarthy’s “handpicked” quarterback, but will the Steelers head coach exercise prejudice against Will Howard? Before—and after—drafting Allar, McCarthy seized every opportunity to shower Howard with praise. Words, however, are words, and tend to speak softer than actions do.
How things play out, we’ll all just have to wait and see. Obviously, it’s hard to imagine any team not favoring a rookie third-round pick over a second-year sixth-round pick with no NFL experience, experience when there’s a coaching change in between. McCarthy drafted Allar—but he also said he would have drafted Howard, and earlier than he actually went. Bob Labriola, at least, is confident he will be an objective evaluator.
“Coach Mike McCarthy has thrown many public compliments toward Will Howard and has talked often about what he sees as his potential to become an NFL quarterback,” Labriola wrote in a recent Asked and Answered segment on the Steelers’ website. “I believe once training camp gets underway, repetitions for the two young quarterbacks will be distributed by performance, not by which one was drafted after McCarthy was hired.”
Of course, we’re still months away from training camp, and Drew Allar and Will Howard will have a lot of offseason reps between now and then. Allar is already underway during rookie minicamp, and Howard will follow at OTAs. At last, the wheels are in motion for this offseason, and questions will begin to find answers on the field.
Both Allar and Howard are vying for second fiddle behind Aaron Rodgers, or so it seems. With a Rodgers signing seeming imminent, that does raise the stakes. At least, it does for Howard, most would agree. Even in an equal-footing competition, it’s hard to see Will Howard as not being on shakier ground. At the bare minimum, Drew Allar will be on the Steelers’ 53-man roster in 2026, even if it’s purely a redshirt year.
Howard, on the other hand, could risk losing his roster spot altogether if he doesn’t perform. Now, that depends on how highly Mike McCarthy and a new Steelers coaching staff value Mason Rudolph and the veteran experience he brings. Would they be content with Allar and Howard as backups, despite neither ever throwing an NFL pass?
It’s worth noting that Labriola said he believes training camp reps will be distributed based on performance. He didn’t say that any competition between the two will be decided by performance. At this point, it’s reasonable to assume that all tiebreakers go to the rookie third-round pick. But I trust that McCarthy has no interest in moving on from Howard, if he can avoid it.
The question is if they decide he is not one of their three best quarterbacks, what then? McCarthy has brought up the practice squad more than once. But would Will Howard make it to the Steelers’ practice squad after how much McCarthy has talked him up? He fell to the sixth round last year and hasn’t shown anything since, largely due to injury. But quarterback is such a valuable position that even lower-level prospects rarely make through waivers.
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